4 ideas
Julian West, a wealthy Bostonian, is put into a mesmeric sleep in an underground chamber in 1887 and is found in the year 2000 by Dr. Leete. The Leete family then explains to him how the city now works: there are no strikes, no poverty, no money and no lawyers. At the end West seems to wake back in 1887, and his horror at its misery becomes the book's final indictment of the present, until he finds this return was only a nightmare.
Every citizen serves in a nationally organized labor force from about age 21 to 45, with a first period of general unskilled work before choosing a trade. Occupations are balanced by adjusting hours instead of wages. Arduous or unpleasant jobs get shorter hours until enough volunteers come forward, and attractive jobs get longer ones. Promotion and public honor, not pay, reward excellence, and retirement at 45 frees the rest of life for leisure and culture.
Society is pictured as a coach dragged by the masses along a rough road while a few ride comfortably on top. The riders pity the pullers but fear losing their seats more than they fear the injustice. They persuade themselves that the arrangement is natural and that the pullers are made of coarser stuff. The image explains why privileged groups defend inequality while sincerely feeling sympathy, because their anxiety about falling off outweighs their moral discomfort.
The book argues that giving every citizen an identical annual credit, drawn on a card at public stores, removes money, trade and the profit motive. This eliminates the waste of competition, advertising, middlemen and duplicated effort. Because want and greed are the roots of most crime and corruption, equal provision makes most police, lawyers and banks unnecessary. Consumption is proportioned to need, not to output, and duty to contribute rests on effort rather than productivity.